Monday, August 6, 2012

Does the LGBTQ community know our history?

The Washington Post published an article today by an author Georgetown/On Faith which, of course, is a pen name. The name of the article is “Leader of black clergy group: Obama is ‘pandering’ to the homosexual community’” where a letter to President Obama is in the body of the article. In this letter the clergyman asks a very valid question. Where was the gay community when he was running for president? This man asked a relevant question and the one most qualified to meet his angry resistance with logical means is someone from the community of which he addressed.

“Mr. President, I’m not going to stand with you, and we have thousands of others across this country that are not going to stand with you with this foolishness [about legalizing gay marriage. ...] For the president to bow to the money, as Judas did for Jesus Christ, is a disgrace, and we’re ashamed. [...] We feel Mr. Obama because of the money has bowed to the money people, the homosexual community. We’re the ones who put him where he is. Where was the gay community when he was running for president? The Civil Rights Movement opened the door for him to become president. At this point he’s pandering to the homosexual community. He’s forgotten where he came from, forgotten who put him there.”
The excerpt above is the letter being mentioned. Before we answer any questions let’s address the obvious angry tone in this person’s statement. As you see he compares Barack Obama to a betrayer of biblical proportions. He also claims that President Obama has kowtowed to money which the writer directly accuses the gay community of having a lot of. Lastly, the writer accuses Obama of not being loyal to the people that help but him into office which he identifies as black people.

Now, no one wants to bring up the subject of history but since the subject of the Black Civil Rights Movement was brought up, it is relevant to make sure information is accurate. It was a black openly gay man named Bayard Rustin that helped teach Martin Luther King and the Black Civil Rights Movement the art of nonviolent protest. Not to mention, this same man was a major organizer for the March on Washington. But, those facts are shrewdly written out of the Black and American history books.

The gay community has been there from the beginning but the reason more people do not know about gay history is because history is written by the victors and the victorious ones, in that case, did not want to mention the level of involvement the LGBTQ has in making this country great. It is not in the best interest to the opponents of equality to show gay America how powerful they are. As in the words of the great Malcolm X “If you can convince people they have never accomplished anything then they can never do anything,” and the gay community has accomplished a great deal.

So, the next time someone writes a statement about the Black Civil Rights Movement claiming our President forget where he came from, hopefully they will remember this article and know that no one forgot as one might believe. They just were not told the whole truth.